Best and worst places to live in England

People living in England can now see how their area is coping with problems such as the recession, crime and childhood obesity thanks to a new website by the Audit Commission.

Comparison site: Find out how your area compares with others on social problems

The site, called Oneplace, has divided England into 152 regions, with the quality of life in each assessed by six independent public service inspectorates.

The assessments were based on how well services meet council's own priorities and central Government targets.

'Green flags' were given to areas which provide exceptional performance, whereas areas not meeting targets, where action is needed, were given a 'red flag'. Councils were also graded on a four-point scale, from 1 (poor) to 2 (adequate), 3 (performing well) and 4 (excellent).

Blackpool secures a green flag for cutting homelessness and Hackney in London for decreasing child mortality. But Doncaster has a red flag for not doing enough to keep children safe and healthy and ensuring they get good results in schools.

Warrington is amongst the worst-performing areas with three red flags on health, child safety and employment prospects; Leeds was flagged up for problems with burglary while Kensington and Chelsea received two green flags for reducing crime and improving education results.

Judgements were made by the Care Quality Commission, Ofsted, the Audit Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorates of Constabulary, Prisons and Probation.

In a joint statement, the inspectorates said: 'Oneplace is for those who pay for local services, those who provide them, and those who depend on them.

'This is 21st-century accountability, based on expert assessments of what services do for people, not how they are organised.

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'It paints a picture of places, their agreed local priorities, challenges and their public service performance.

'The website offers a way of checking the effectiveness of public spending and helps people hold those who provide publicly funded services to account for their decisions.'

Communities Secretary John Denham said: 'The new assessment system is putting more information about the state of local services into the hands of the public than ever before.

'It is just the start of our efforts to give local people far better access to information held by local public organisations so they can challenge, compare or scrutinise their local services in order to drive up standards in their area.